Revenue Science's CMO explains why behavioral targeting is ideal for life-event marketing online, reaching the right consumers at the right time.

Behavioral targeting is about reaching the right customer at the right moment with the right advertising. And at no time is that more important than with life-events marketing. Getting married, buying a house, having a child, watching a child graduate from college -- these are the events that people's lives -- and marketer's targets -- are made of.

People who are going through a life event are completely consumed by it. It trumps everything else that is going on in their lives and they are incredibly receptive to the right message from the right advertiser. However, it is often the case that marketers cannot take full advantage of a consumer's life event because they either cannot "see" it through traditional advertising data, or they are not presented with the opportunity to maximize the impact they can have.

By consistently messaging to a consumer during one of these optimal moments using behavioral targeting, advertisers can run online campaigns that deliver better results and make better use of their precious ad dollars.

Increasing the opportunity
In the offline world, advertisers have many options for reaching prospective customers undergoing a life event. A diaper manufacturer, for instance, can advertise in parenting magazines, send samples of new diaper products by mail, and provide a free care package to new parents at the hospital.

Unfortunately, even though there is quality content online that caters to this audience, that audience produces much more inventory opportunities away from that content. So what is today's online marketer to do?

Behavioral targeting provides the ideal solution to the problem of limited online inventories. By creating more opportunities for advertisers based on the user and not the page, advertisers have access to new inventory and, often, a higher-quality audience. For example, with behavioral targeting, the diaper advertiser can reach prospective customers not just when they visit the "new baby" section of a parenting site, but also when they are on a site that has unrelated content. Let me explain what I mean.

Let's say that the same person also visits a furniture site in search of a crib. Behavioral targeting can zero in on this behavior and, based on those actions, qualify the person as a member of a "new parent" audience segment that advertisers can buy. Now, rather than waiting for an opening on one of very few parenting pages, the advertiser can deliver their message anywhere, ensuring that the relevant ad reaches the new parent during the life event.

A colleague of mine at work is the perfect example of a life event consumer. She recently married, and was consumed as she planned her wedding and honeymoon. To make matters more interesting, she also planned to move to another state with her fiancé right after they wed.

She was going through multiple life events at once, creating a prime opportunity for advertisers. Behavioral targeting is able to fully address multiple aspects of a life stage by connecting the dots between online behavior and off-line experiences.

Because she visited bridal gown sites, she qualified as a member of a "honeymoon trip" audience segment that travel advertisers could deliver their honeymoon specials to, knowing full well that she would be in the market for a good deal on a honeymoon vacation.  Similarly, her visits to realty sites, coupled with her IP address in another state might qualify her as a member of a long-distance relocation audience so moving companies could target her.  Even if she was simply reading the morning news or checking the weather, with behavioral targeting she would still see relevant, life event-specific messages from these advertisers.

Spoiled by choice
By using behavioral targeting creatively, you may find that the difficulty of marketing around life events is turned on its head. There are so many ways that different pieces of behavioral data can allow you to reach your audience, that the bigger challenge is choosing the best of many options. Behavioral targeting providers regularly work with agencies to fine tune customized audiences like these to reach the most favorable mix of reach and relevance and, more importantly, make buying the audience easy.

As online marketers, we must be attuned to consumers' needs. We need to understand what life stage they are in, react quickly and then message appropriately. Behavioral targeting can help us achieve that-- often much more effectively and efficiently than contextual advertising can.

People who are going through a significant life event are every marketer's dream. These are the people who are most receptive to your message and most primed to make a purchase. Once the time has expired on this period, so, too, has the marketer's opportunity. Behavioral targeting offers the best way to reach an audience who is ready to respond and who otherwise may not receive the message at all.

Omar Tawakol is Chief Marketing Officer of Revenue Science Inc. Read full bio.